JSW One eyes IPO in 18-24 months, targets break-even this fiscal

Time of India

8 hours ago

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JSW One Platforms, the business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce arm of the steel-to-cement conglomerate JSW Group, plans to go public in 18-24 months, joining peers like Zetwerk, Infra Market and OfBusiness in preparing for an initial public offering (IPO).'We will be breaking even this year, and active appointments with investment bankers will begin from the next financial year,' Gaurav Sachdeva, chief executive of JSW One, told ET in an interview.'We don't need large-scale capital today. This year is about building scale and planning for the next year,' he said.Founded in 2020 by Sachdeva and Parth Jindal, the scion of JSW Group, the online marketplace operates through two main entities — JSW One Distribution and JSW One Finance — which together offer materials, credit, and logistics services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing and building sectors.JSW One Platforms recently raised Rs 340 crore in a funding round led by Principal Asset Management, OneUp, and parent JSW Steel , taking its valuation to $1 billion and making it a unicorn.The company currently clocks Rs 1,400 crore in monthly gross merchandise value (GMV), handling around 2.4 million metric tonnes of steel annually, or about 1.6% of India's total steel supply.In FY24, JSW One reported a revenue of Rs 1,421.9 crore, a 4.2x jump from Rs 338.8 crore in the previous year. Its net loss had widened to Rs 277 crore, up from Rs 83.8 crore, as per data from Tracxn.One of the company's early differentiators, according to Sachdeva, was building a tech-enabled interface between buyers and sellers in an industry where transactions traditionally happened over phone calls.However, unlike traditional marketplaces, JSW One is not pursuing a multi-seller model.'Supply in the B2B space is concentrated, held by just a few players in the steel and cement sectors. JSW One does not intend to build a multi-seller marketplace but will instead operate as a platform focusing on enabling transactions, logistics, credit, in a tech-enabled way,' Sachdeva said.JSW One has built a network of 13 steel processing centres and launched JSW One Transportation Services, a fully owned logistics arm that manages last-mile delivery and part-truckload shipments.Sachdeva said around 40% of the company's GMV is on credit, with Rs 500 crore disbursed monthly through third-party lenders. The company itself does not extend credit directly.'We still use third-party credit because it's more efficient,' he said. 'Our NBFC is a different business that we are running to provide financial services or to provide credit to some part of JSW One ecosystem and then some part to the JSW group ecosystem. That's an independent business that we are running.'Sachdeva was previously the chief executive and managing partner of JSW Ventures, the venture investing arm of the Mumbai-based group.ET reported in March that Infra.Market's parent Hella Infra Market is planning to file for an IPO within 90 days. The company had earlier this year raised $121 million from investors including Tiger Global, Evolvence, Foundamental GmbH, Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, and Capri Global.SoftBank-backed OfBusiness has also been in talks to launch a $1-billion IPO , as reported by Reuters, while Zetwerk, backed by Peak XV, is aiming to raise $400–500 million through its IPO While the construction industry is facing a slowdown amid a challenging market and pressure on steel prices, Sachdeva said demand remains strong and continues to grow each year.